September 15, 2026
New York Times - It’s Boom Time in Kyrgyzstan, Courtesy in Part of the War in Ukraine
As the sound of drilling echoed around him, Mirlan Akzhigitov approached an architectural model of a 27-floor building with a toy helicopter perched on the roof. He turned around and beamed.
“The first skyscraper in Kyrgyzstan, in Kyrgyz history,” Mr. Akzhigitov joked, pointing out the penthouse he plans to call home once the building, the luxurious Royal Tower, is finished later this year.
The high-rise, in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, is one of 24 simultaneous construction projects that Mr. Akzhigitov and his company, Royal, are developing. The new towers are part of a frenzied economic boom that is remaking Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous Central Asian nation of about seven million people.
Read the full article on The New York Times.
Aigerim Turgunbayeva is a Research Fellow at the Turan Research Center.